Tempest in a Tea Party pot

“A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the bible start holding hands.  This is not a romance we want to encourage.”  Jesus wants to Save Christmas, Rob Bell & Don Golden

I have a multitude of problems with the Tea Party.  Starting with the minor complaints;

They felt compelled to add Patriots to their name.  This falls into the legal category of “puffery.”  Much like adding the word Estates to the crappy trailer park on the south side of town, if you have to sell it that hard, no one is buying.  

There have been some cries of racism which I cannot substantiate with the people I know who identify with the cause.  Because they are ultra conservative and mostly middle aged and middle class, by default this makes them white.  That is not to say there are not at least a couple nut jobs in the woodpile.  By in large though, they seem an open lot if you are part of their team.  I am sure an ultra conservative, middle class person of color would be welcome.  I suspect they would put you on the marketing material too. 

The Christian right wing is long on rules, condemnation and stone throwing.  They are short on compassion, and the basic understanding of their own religion, other than to carve out the sections of they like the most, then throw away the rest. Just so you know my scale of compassion, I have been told multiple times (mostly by my wife) that I have the compassion of a stump.  My idea of counseling is, “that was stupid, stop it.”

 This is the same type of people who excommunicated my brother from their Baptist church because he used drugs.  They would have had a fit had they found out he was gay.  This is the group of people who made a pregnant teenager get up in front of the congregation and apologize for having sex.   Here is how the right wing church works.  You get pregnant and are not married, you get the red A.  You have an abortion you are branded as a murder.  You do the right thing and have the child as an unwed mother, you are an outcast.  You get the “E” ticket to hell no matter what you do. 

 Jesus taught none of that.  This is the 21 century Pharisees spinning the rules; at least that is how it looks from my lowly desk chair.  But that is not my primary complaint about the Tea Party and Co. It is specifically the flag and bible going on a car dates and making out in the back seat.    

Rob Bell is a Christian author and pastor of a mega church in Michigan.  He accurately sums up my biggest fear with the Tea Pots.  They want to make the US a Theocracy.  Even though by most standards I would be considered a conservative and described by someone as a serious Christian (although I am not at all religious), I do not want to live in a Theocracy.  Not a Muslim, not a Christian and CLEARLY not a Tea Party lead government.  I like the idea of lower taxes and small government.  The idea of their government scares me more than I would like to admit.